So pleased to have my new Junior Historians Club in the news today & super proud of the young historians-in-training who spoke to the BBC about their interest in history! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Friar's Bush: The graveyard telling the story of Belfast

Friar's Bush is the last resting place of Bernard Hughes, the famous creator of the Belfast Bap.

bbc.co.uk

'A woman’s body moved from female attendance into male medical testimony, then into print. In the mid-twentieth century, the direction turned again.' Haohao Zhang (they/he) explores an unlikely connection between doctor Edward Griffith and the Mary Toft affair.

Mary Toft and the Radical Birth Control Movement

Why was a twentieth-century doctor deeply involved in the radical birth control movement so interested in an eighteenth-century reproductive scandal?

historyworkshop.org.uk

Do you have/know primary-aged children who love history? I'm running events this summer in the historic Friar's Bush graveyard aimed at kids 6-12 who love Horrible Histories. Early bird discount applied automatically at checkout with group concessions. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1992360697...

I had a great time presenting new research at @mellonmigration.bsky.social Ulster American Heritage Symposium yesterday. Huge thank you to the organisers & participants.

"There's been a reticence to acknowledge that there are ethical difficulties in doing certain kinds of historical research and very few resources for historians who are dealing with accounts of other people's pain." @ruthbeecher.bsky.social and Julie Wheelwright on writing difficult histories.

Writing Difficult Subjects

How can historians write with compassion and ethical clarity about issues of sexual violence?

historyworkshop.org.uk

Hiya, I'm Robyn, I have a PhD in history and I talk about history for a living. If you're an historian, archaeologist or work in related fields, based in NI & you'd like to talk about it to a wider audience... Please come say hi!

I was in Dublin on Sunday for my first event with Seed Talks talking about the history of witchcraft and women in Ireland. Then I came home to Belfast on Monday night...

Some 19th-century doodles from the archives.

My latest newsletter now on Substack - covering cholera pits & with the details of some exciting new events over the next few weeks. open.substack.com/pub/robynatc...

We are stronger, and better historians, together. Historical societies abound in the UK, and we've listed 150 with BlueSky accounts in this updated Starter Pack. go.bsky.app/AZaYQDd Other societies appear on a new listing of subject societies on the RHS website bit.ly/4ebwP9r #Skystorians

Today the memorial for the Belfast workhouse burial ground was unveiled. Huge thanks to all those who have worked with me in making this happen. There are tens of thousands of people buried here and now their resting place is finally marked.

What is feminism? A simple guide to an often-misunderstood topic: Learn about women’s fight for equality and what it means for feminist movements today. 'Feminism is the belief that everyone, regardless of gender, should have equal rights and opportunities.' www.unwomen.org/en/articles/...

Really interesting project in QUB archaeology on Landscapes of Catastrophe looking at the period of the Great Famine. Here's hoping for some workhouse burials... 🤞 www.qub.ac.uk/schools/NBE/...

Watching the Artemis II launch countdown a few days after Project Hail Mary was a choice. A lot more space this week than normal.

I'm bringing some in progress research to the Imagine! Festival this weekend & inviting participants behind the scenes to how historians reconstruct lives of ordinary people & the worlds they inhabited. imaginebelfast.com/event/findin...

Finding Jane: Fallen Women in Victorian Belfast - Imagine! Belfast

Join historian Dr Robyn Atcheson as she reconstructs the life of Belfast woman the ‘notorious Jane McCance’.

imaginebelfast.com

Its 2 days later and I'm still annoyed at myself for leaving a teams meeting before looking at the chat and now I can't see it

a woman is sitting in an elevator and saying i respectfully decline this feeling .

ALT: a woman is sitting in an elevator and saying i respectfully decline this feeling .

media.tenor.com

I presented my research and public history work last night in the Workhouse Lives seminar series. Some really interesting and thought-provoking questions - keeping me up last night thinking about them!

My car battery was dead yesterday. My husband tried to push it to get it going. Nothing. We had jump leads. Knocked a few doors. Nothing. Knew our next door neighbours would help but they have hybrids. No one stopped to help. Depressing.

My latest piece for The Irish News all about man-midwives and my upcoming event on the history of pregnancy and childbirth. www.irishnews.com/life/health/...

Man-midwives and their instruments of disease

Ahead of her talk at this year’s NI Science Festival, Dr Robyn Acheson explores how childbirth, once firmly in women’s hands, was transformed by the arrival of male doctors, medical instruments and ho...

irishnews.com

My first piece for @theconversation.com is now online! Is it weird to have a favourite natural disaster? Mine is the Night of the Big Wind. theconversation.com/how-a-feroci...

How a ferocious 19th-century hurricane helped Irish people get their British pension

The devastating 1839 hurricane that hit the island of Ireland had unexpected benefits for some decades later.

theconversation.com

"Of the 991 history exam questions set in 2023, 357 featured a named individual, but only 31 were women – and nine of those were references to Elizabeth I or her reign." Dr Natasha R. Hodgson of Nottingham Trent University writes this week in The Conversation bit.ly/49ZqTiq

Women are still absent from how history is taught and assessed in England

Over a third of GCSE, AS and A-level exam papers in 2023 made no mention of women at all.

bit.ly

Another great project developed by the Centre for Public History at QUB

Lisa Rea Currie appointed AHRC Community Innovation Practitioner on BeHere Project

Queen’s has been awarded a Community Innovation Practitioner (CIP) Award for 2025-26, as part of the Creative Communities programme, funded by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and ...

qub.ac.uk

🎨 Apply by 29 Sept 2025 for a £10,000 Artist Residency at Mount Stewart, Co. Down! Part of the Historic Houses, Global Crossroads research, the 6-week residency (May–June 2026) invites artists to explore global plant networks & reimagine the site’s ecological legacy🌿See link in thread.

Another week, another workhouse! Last night I attended the unveiling of a new memorial at Magherafelt workhouse. The Loup & District Historical Society, with the expert guidance of Dr Ciaran Reilly, did an excellent job with this project.

Had a great excuse this week to revisit a workhouse. Limavady (or Newtownlimavady) was opened in 1842 as a medium model capable of holding 500 paupers. It is now better known in the area as Roe Valley Hospital where some outpatient services are still in operation. #workhouse

You may have heard me on Radio Ulster yesterday morning chatting with Anna Curran about a very interesting Belfast woman - Flora Lewis. The full story of this woman and her life is now up on my website. #womenshistory www.robynatcheson.com/articles/flo...

Florence Augusta Hamilton: mother and mathematician — Robyn Atcheson - Historian

Florence Augusta Hamilton Lewis Mother and mathematician

robynatcheson.com

We are closed 11-14 July. While we are away, here are some important things to remember!

To celebrate the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth, I chatted sex history & the Georgians earlier this year for a new podcast - Austen After Dark This is very NSFW and also NSFMF (Not Suitable For My Family) (You've been warned) open.spotify.com/episode/0zQJ...

Sex in Jane Austen's World with Dr. Robyn Atcheson

Austen After Dark · Episode

open.spotify.com

Join us! We are advertising two part-time, paid Editorial Fellowships at History Workshop in 2025-27. Our fellowships support early career historians to develop expertise in public, radical and digital history & to gain experience of working in an editorial team. www.historyworkshop....

Call for Applications: Editorial Fellowships at History Workshop, 2025

History Workshop is advertising two part-time, paid Editorial Fellowships in 2025, open to early career historians.

historyworkshop.org.uk

Finished up exam marking today and fitted in some prep for a radio interview tomorrow. Pre-recording some women's history for BBC Radio Ulster. Looking forward to chatting about women's education in Belfast & a special mathematician.